Domino's is rolling out a new game that could earn you free pizza — and it's a brilliant scheme to capture more of your data

Domino's is rolling out a mobile game to take its loyalty program to the next level.

The game features a custom-built Rube Goldberg machine and highlights all the different ways users can order a Domino's pizza and accumulate loyalty points.

Domino's is no stranger to embracing technology, and it often refers to itself as a tech company that sells pizza.

There's an obvious data play here: The more popular its loyalty program, the more Domino's knows about its customers and how best to sell to them.

Want some Domino's pizza?

You could already get takeout or order a pie with a phone call, a few taps on the Domino's app, a tweet, an emoji, or even by asking your Amazon Echo or your Google Assistant — while racking up loyalty points along the way.

But now, Domino's is giving its customers yet another way to earn points under its loyalty program. As long as they have gaming skills.

The pizza-delivery chain is rolling out "Piece of the Pie Pursuit," a mobile game that users can play to accumulate loyalty points. The game, available both for the iPhone and on Android, features a custom-built Rube Goldberg machine where users must carefully complete a range of tasks in a series of levels.

Each level has a distinct pizza-themed challenge — such as guiding a pizza-cutter car along a track against a countdown or using a pizza-sauce "spoodle" to catapult a ball to new heights — while highlighting one of the ways customers can order Domino's. Players who beat all six levels receive 10 bonus points toward free pizza. (Sixty points can be redeemed for a free medium two-topping pizza, according to the company's website.)

Lots of ways to win loyalty

"Our aim was to come up with a fun way to reinforce all the different ordering capabilities that we have," Stephen Kennedy, the director of loyalty marketing at Domino's, told Business Insider. "It's an extension of the TV ad we currently have running that highlights all the ways that you can order from Domino's."

While most other restaurant chains have customer loyalty programs, Domino's claims that it is the only national pizza-delivery chain that offers consumers loyalty points for phone, in-store, and digital orders. So it also made sense to drive that point home.

"We wanted to highlight the technology that Domino's has implemented on the back end and how it has gone the extra mile to give you points no matter how you order," said Kelly McCormick, a creative director at CP+B, the creative agency that has long worked with Domino's. "It is a huge point of differentiation."

Domino's wants to be known as a digital pizza company

Domino's is no stranger to embracing technology, and it often refers to itself as a tech company that sells pizza. Ever since CEO Patrick Doyle (who is leaving the company in June) embarked on an aggressive turnaround plan for the company in 2010 prioritizing not just pizza making but also pizza delivery, the brand has continually pushed the envelope to make ordering more efficient and customer-friendly.

This isn't even the first time Domino's has made a game. It created the iPad game "Pizza Hero" in 2012, which allowed users to make and order real pizza, and rose to a No. 3 ranking in Apple's App Store.

A continuing focus for Domino's, however, has been on experimenting with new digital offerings — from delivering pizza using drones to developing a delivery tracker and even a custom Domino's delivery car replete with a warming oven with room for 80 pizzas. More than 60% of Domino's orders are executed on digital platforms, so creating a mobile game seemed like a natural thing to do.

"The game subtly pushes our story of innovation forward," McCormick said. "We try to infuse technology into everything as much as we can — it's just become a part of our DNA."

At the same time, the game is also tied to a bigger bet the company is making on its Piece of the Pie loyalty program. So far, the program seems to be paying off handsomely for the Michigan-based pizza chain, according to Kennedy, and has played a significant role in the company's growth since it was launched in 2015. Global sales for the company were up 11.7% in the last quarter of 2017, with "millions" of members in the loyalty program.

"The program helps us drive engagement and consumer loyalty," he said. "So it made sense to create a game that would create a point of brand engagement outside of the ordering duration."

The data factor

But apart from engagement, there's also an obvious data play here. The more popular its loyalty program, the more robust the company's data and hence e-commerce capabilities become. And the more it knows about its customers and their habits, the better insights it can derive to further customize loyalty programs and ad targeting.

"There is unbelievable power in the data that these various tech and digital channels provide us," said Kennedy, adding that the company had an expanding in-house data and insights team. "The fact that we own our own data is hugely beneficial."

Ultimately, the company plans to keep investing in tech and digital initiatives moving forward, Kennedy said — while taking care to protect its customers' data and avoid breaches, such as Under Armour's gaffe with its app MyFitnessPal.

"It's a true focus for where we're headed as a company," he said. "Tomorrow's technology will make today's technology obsolete, so we're always looking for the next thing."